This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Premier Dalton McGuinty has already faced plenty of criticism from political opponents over sensible anti-bullying legislation for schools. Now the leadership of the Catholic church is after him, too.

Cardinal Thomas Collins, the archbishop of Toronto, is accusing the government of trampling “religious freedom” over changes that would let Catholic students call their anti-homophobia support groups “gay” clubs if they choose to do that. “Why is a piece of provincial legislation being used to micromanage the naming of student clubs?” asks Collins.

That’s a fair question. Here’s the simple answer: Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic education system has refused to get with the program and truly support its gay students. Anytime the province has given Catholic bishops and trustees a little leeway to do the right thing for gay students they have failed to do so. Now, they are, rightly, set to lose the ability to decide.

Allowing Catholic students to have gay-straight alliance clubs, which are common in public schools, is a small piece of broad legislation to curb all types of bullying. The bill is expected to pass with Liberal and NDP support next week.

The government’s intervention to support gay students is unnecessary, argues Collins, because Catholics have their own “methods” to “shape a school environment that is welcoming to all.”

Article Continued Below

Tell that to Leanne Iskander. A rainbow flag was considered too contentious to be allowed at an anti-homophobia event at her Catholic high school last year. The enterprising teens got around it by baking rainbow cupcakes. Their reaction should be a lesson to the church. Fighting students who just want to reduce bullying and promote tolerance will never be a winner.

Trying to evoke some broad church and state war, as Collins did in his statement, is also bound to be a loser. In a warning to people “of other faiths,” Collins said, “if it happens to us, it can happen to you.”

This is nothing short of ridiculous. Every other faith group in Ontario can only dream of having what Catholics have – $7 billion in annual taxpayer funding for a separate school system. And just what religious freedom is Collins fighting to defend? The freedom to ban the word “gay” from Catholic schools? To shove gay teens back into the closet and make them feel like second-class citizens?

The church may be comfortable with that but it isn’t acceptable in our public school system. As McGuinty said on Tuesday, Ontario has “fundamental values that transcend any one faith.”

Gay-straight alliances and other clubs are places where students can receive much-needed support to get through what can be pretty tough days at school. These student clubs are not a threat to the Catholic education system.

But the church’s intransigence on this issue may well be. Each time Catholic officials and trustees show themselves to be well behind what their students want and broader society supports, they inevitably renew calls to pull public funding from Catholic schools.

That’s the real danger to Catholic education, not using the word “gay” to describe a student club.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com